So after test driving and comparing the crap out of various 7-seaters, it really came down to the 2017 Explorer or the 2017 Audi Q7. While the Volvo XC90 seemed nice on the surface and is a beautiful, lovely car, there are massive problems with that car (removing key buttons and putting everything on the touch screen, and serious reliability problems). Didn't like any other 7 seater.
I considered the Explorer a month ago in late July, but while the "cash" price was good, the interest rates were too high (at 4.4%). And I figured because it was a 2017 model, that's how they would make back their money. But in a weird twist of fate, the rates are down to 1.9% over 4 years or 2.9% over 5 years. With the same employee pricing and Costco discount, I decided to pull the trigger. And I'm getting a new car that's in holding, so I'll get it on Monday.
I really truly wanted the Audi Q7. It's a gorgeous car with all the right tech and aesthetics that appeals to me, but I just couldn't make the numbers work for me. Basically with the "minimum" options I was willing to settle for, the car was going to cost $90k CDN out the door after taxes and fees and finance it over 6 years at a 4.4% interest rate. While technically I could stretch my budget to buy it, it's just too high... They'd make another $10k profit in interest, and just didn't make sense.
At first I liked the Platinum trim the best. The exterior looks the best when you have a dark color with chrome accents. But I couldn't stand the wood trim on the steering wheel, and inlays. And while the leather is more upgraded, it just lacked something. And I loved the interior of the sport -- aluminum inlays, and accent red stitching, but I hated the blackened out exterior. But an utterly loaded Sport with +$400 smoked quartz color does look really good. I don't like the blue tinge in the web configurator, but the color in real-life looks amazing. It's a very dark gray metallic with no hint of blue or green at all. In fact it looks nearly black in direct sunlight. To me, it's the closest color to black you can get while retaining the ability to hide dirt that you get with gray cars.
The platinum has some nice things you can't get on the sport (upgraded stereo, massaging seats, lane assist, and park assist), but I don't really need or want any of those things, and while I got to experience the massaging seats, they weren't very good and it was kind of gimmicky. I would never use park assist and don't know if I would care about lane assist -- I've lived without it all these years without problems. And save a couple grand and get under the threshold for luxury tax in BC. NOTE: American's can get the upgraded stereo. Also it's still confusing, but there are different dashboards and apparently the platinum has an all-digital dashboard, while the sport has a partial digital. But it doesn't really matter because I didn't find the all digital dash to be nearly as enamoring as the Audi's virtual ****pit, so whatever.
So best price I got was the 2017 Explorer Sport. $53k + doc + taxes - $1000 Costco discount. It's got every option except bucket seats and mud flaps and the $400 paint. I got them to knock off $425 for the anti-theft labeling/etc. I said I didn't want it, so they said it already had it and they would just give that to me for free. Basically it's just a hidden cost thing they do on all the cars. I pick it up on Monday.
After running the numbers on the Audi... this car is just so much cheaper and ends up costing $30k less, and it's just the reasonable thing to do.
I do find it weird and almost suspicious that one can get such good deals on a new model year Explorer. They literally have just started arriving in dealers here over the past month. But I guess that's how they keep their volume up? 2016s are only $1000 cheaper and without Sync 3... doesn't make any sense to buy one because depreciation.